I've been playing this game almost non-stop. I thought the game would be less dramatic and have less features after all of the content packed into Yakuza 5, boy was I wrong. >.>Awesome video~ I agree that the choice to include three or four different variety of cutscene types was a bit strange.

So basically Japanese GTA? I know that may sound apples to oranges for fans of the series, but the Yakuza games are definitely hard to market or explain what their appeal is. I actually dare someone to recommend me each one using 10 words or less.

Silentpony:I dunno. Lots of people like these games, but they seem very very tedious.

They kind of are.

Which is why, if that's a turn off for you, you just watch a long play of the game(s) by someone like the Super Best Friends Play crew. That way you get to experience the zany hilarity and over-the-top action sequences of the series (along with some decent commentary and banter, depending on who you watch) but with the added bonus of a "skip-ahead" function.

Igor-Rowan:So basically Japanese GTA? I know that may sound apples to oranges for fans of the series, but the Yakuza games are definitely hard to market or explain what their appeal is. I actually dare someone to recommend me each one using 10 words or less.

Yahtzee, you ordinary person. Try as you might, you can't hide your affection for these games. Despite the nitpicks, this seems more like a love letter to the series than anything. Which is understandable, the Yakuza series is kind of like a force of nature, lots of people seem to dig it. Sounds like a camp-tastic romp through the seedy under-belly of Japan, and who wouldn't find that appealing.

You may be interested to know that apparently the real life Yakuza are the first to do volunteer work after disasters in Japan. I hear they hand out food and clear rubble away, so maybe the altruism in the game isn't as off the mark as it may seem.

That said, they're still a criminal organization and I wouldn't condone it, but still. If you must have a crime syndicate, might as well have a polite one, right?

Igor-Rowan:So basically Japanese GTA? I know that may sound apples to oranges for fans of the series, but the Yakuza games are definitely hard to market or explain what their appeal is. I actually dare someone to recommend me each one using 10 words or less.

Japanese fight club with mini games. You'll just have to imagine the other four.

Silentpony:I dunno. Lots of people like these games, but they seem very very tedious.

they are in a cathartic way. It's like the anti-junk food, tastes weird but leaves you satisfied.

Igor-Rowan:So basically Japanese GTA? I know that may sound apples to oranges for fans of the series, but the Yakuza games are definitely hard to market or explain what their appeal is. I actually dare someone to recommend me each one using 10 words or less.

JRPG with real-time combat, set in realistic modern Tokyo.

I usually don't do a lot of those side activities like karaoke, bowling, batting cages, hostess clubs; but I do at least try out each activity. I think that's kind of the point: if you are the sort of person that goes for 100% completion you can sink your teeth in it, but even if you're not their mere existence does a lot to make the world feel so much more alive.

Don't worry about your inability to properly pronounce Japanese, Yahtzee. I took two years of it in college and my accent was described as flawless by my professor (when I could actually remember what words I was supposed to be using), but when I pronounce Japanese names, I get called out for being a weeaboo and told I should just pronounce them normally.What I'm saying is that it's a game you can't win and people should fuck off, which is an attitude I think you'd appreciate.

Silentpony:I dunno. Lots of people like these games, but they seem very very tedious.

I have to admit that I kind of got off the Yakuza train with 4. (Technically, I got off with Dead Souls but I'm not sure that counts.) Yes, there is some tedium but, as Yahtzee points out, the game is really good. What killed it for me is that, by the end of 4, I kinda got the same feeling that you get when you watch the fourth Die Hard. You may still be having fun but the nagging feeling of how the hell Kiryu McClane keeps getting dragged back into the Yakuza life starts feeling increasingly contrived as well as the whole "haven't I done this before?" feeling. (In fairness, by the end of the PSWii60 generation, I had decided to get off the sequel train for almost all my long-running series so Yakuza isn't unique in this aspect.)